Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs in Egypt

The project aims to provide women and adolescent girls in Giza with a greater understanding of their economic rights and increase their ability to make effective choices and transform them into desired outcomes. Project activities include: (1) establishing women groups and conducting capacity building sessions for these groups on gender equality and rights and decision making around issues that affect their lives; (2) providing training to women and adolescent girls on gender-responsive environment -friendly technical skills and occupational health and safety; (3) delivering gender-responsive financial education and autonomous decision-making training to women and adolescent girls; and (4) organizing policy dialogue and forums between carpet industry stakeholders women’s rights organizations and the National Council for Women on improving policies programs and services for women’s economic empowerment and decent work. The project is expected to benefit 2 500 women (aged 19 and older) and 2 500 adolescent girls (between the ages of 15 and 18). The project also targets 945 men and 1 500 boys through men engagement interventions to address gender-specific barriers to women’s entrepreneurship and create an enabling environment for women’s economic empowerment.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) established and improved agency of women and adolescent girls to exercise decisions regarding their economic participation; (2) increased access and control of women and girls to gender responsive factors of productivity savings and innovation in business and employment; and (3) improved responsiveness of governorate stakeholders to women's economic rights and decent work.